Amazing. One thing that gets me is the size of his hands.
I have pretty short, squat fingers and I find some of his exercises to be pretty daunting.
I'm playing an '86 P Bass.
I also know that Ray Shulman of Gentle Giant also plays a Precision and his hands are big also, thus making some of his riffs pretty difficult.
Will practice overcome this? Is there a "small hand" thread out there? Hehe...
Thanks all.

I have posted this answer before so i will post it again.
Find a bass to suit you, do not look to develop to suit the bass.

Would you wear shoes that are three sizes to big?..or buy a suit three sizes bigger etc.

Bass come in three sizes short scale, medium scale and long, as well as many neck widths and thicknesses (i prefer a 20 fret Bass). If you have the money, then get one made, they are not as expensive as you may think.
I shot some videos last year for Hofner using the now with with-drawen Galaxie bass, so those basses are great to customize with new hardware, EQ suites Pick-ups etc if you want to, and have a great Jazz style bass...but smaller.

I have always been amazed at how using Short scale basses is some how frowned upon as it is seen as a 'weakness'?????
But players can use an even smaller Kala Bass and that is seen as cool????

I have small hands as well. I always loved bass and thought it would be a huge obstacle. It was at first, but the reach is coming along after a year of practice. I still get challenged by some stuff with the pinky in particular, but in due time I will get there.

True story:in the summer of '91, I worked at a hip restaurant and the local jazz station threw some killer shows on the lawn out back. we fed the bands in one our private rooms. this gig was stanley jordan and larry carlton. steve baily was playing w/Larry and I met him and rapped a bit with him. he realised I was a player, and I told him I played trumpet, but wished I could play bass, but my hands were too small. he said "nonsense! show me" he held his hand up asked me to do so. low and behold, almost exactly the same, except he had a longer pinky of course. he said "man, you can do it. get yourself a bass."
I waited a long time, but I am really glad I finally did!

You can only be yourself so strive to be the best you you can..
that said..

I don't have big mitts either, P-Bass is my main instrument.

You can always adapt exercises/patterns to what works for you.
I've been doing this forever, Make things practical rather then painful..

In fact by having to analyze fingerings etc you gain a better knoeledge of the neck..

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Totally on board with this. When I first started playing I automatically thought I would never make the cut with a wider neck instrument, so I avoided the p bass like the plague, even if that was genuinely the sound I wanted to begin with. I love Motown and classic rock. I knew about the strings, etc but was afraid of just not being capable of that stretch. Long story, short I went from. The Hofner Galaxie short scale, got very fast on that...finally I tried a full scale fender P used in a local shop and fell in love.... Not just with the vintage thump but ALSO with the comfortable neck! Never give up on yourself and be intimidated for the record, that Galaxie IS a wicked fun little bass

Amazing. One thing that gets me is the size of his hands.
I have pretty short, squat fingers and I find some of his exercises to be pretty daunting.

Click to expand...

That Jaco vid is interesting, and I suggest you watch all the way to the end, when he's jamming with Scofield and Dennard.

One thing I noticed on repeat viewing is that, when he's not demonstrating exercises or showing off his signature licks (in other words when he is just being a bass player and laying down a thick groove for his buddies), Jaco actually had a fairly conservative fingering technique and avoided the "one finger per fret" system that seems very popular on the internet these days in favor of the ergononic and time-tested 1-2-4.

Watch "The Chicken" for example: he plays the signature groove with his 1st finger at the 1st fret ("1st position") and his 4th finger at the 3rd fret. His hand is not stretched or spread out at all, and you don't need big hands to play "The Chicken." He only really does the crazy double-jointed Jaco-stretch when it's necessary for a particular musical line/passage (or when he's soloing and mugging for the camera).

Some would think "oh gawd...I wish I had really big hands for bass.....it would be so much easier".

On a longscale it isn't if everything else in the equation is incorrect.....meaning wrist angle, attack angle, elbow bend, style of playing, and a host of other things that determine basic interfacing with the instrument.

I can span five frets on the low nut-end of a longscale string........huge advantage right?

Not really. I can do it, but I dislike doing it when playing.

It's like walking. I'd rather walk normally all the time than like John Cleese in the Monty Python segment where each leg goes sky-high every step.

Spanning and actually playing comfortably are two different things. To play comfortably and in some cases "fast" you need to be ergonomically in the least fatiguing mode.

A large hand span does not necessarily facilitate this. Large spans require a lot of muscle /tendon effort. Which works against playing smoothly and comfortably.

In the Dave Marks video this issue is addressed pretty well for finger positions on the low end.

The first rule to toss out is the "one finger per fret" system taught by those who've never played bass.

You use what works for you as long as it works effectively without limiting your progress.

I see myself to have small hands, but over the year's my hand span has increased from playing all this jazz/fusion stuff, and the Jaco exercises have helped, the stretch and area i can cover has increased massively to what it used to be 5 years ago!